The sounds of the water washing against the shore were drowned out as multiple unicorns were hard at work, some were neck-deep in the water, and all were doing their best to keep their comrades breathing beneath the waves while also helping to feed them several large cables connecting to the earth ponies on the shore, who were read with the rigging to pull in their catch once it was hooked up.
roughly a week prior to the mass gathering of ponies on the shore the famous Adventurer Daring Doo had been in the area, looking for a sunken treasure rumored to be in the Luna Sea's depths, instead, she had found a massive metal object deep in the depths of the water.
After failing to find out what it was or a way to remove it, she left in a bid to find financial support for a team to help her pull the unknown artifact from the water, but no sooner had she left, had her one again off again enemy Dr. Caballeron arrived on the scene, after a week of hard work Dr. Caballaeron's and his Hench Ponies where hard at work, nearly ready to pull the mysterious artifact from the ocean's depths.
"And you're certain there aren't any guardians here?" Caballaeron asked one of his bench ponies, who simply nodded a positive response. "Good, let's pick up the pace, the sooner we get that artifact the sooner we get paid, and the sooner I can work on embellishing this excursion for my next book,"
"We've got a positive response from the underwater team," One of the Hench Unicorns called out to Caballaeron, "The First Magnet is in place, confirmed reports, I repeat confirmed reports the magnet has stuck in place,"
"Make sure the harness is set up properly before the magnets are reeled in," Caballaeron called back, "We don't want a piece of it, we want as much of it as we can pull loose, have the squad who have already set their magnet in place split, half start setting up the harness, the other half make sure nothing will prevent us from pulling in our catch, make sure the other two squads do the same, and no one pull any levers until we start getting confirmation reports, I don't want a repeat of last years incident,"
The Hench Unicorn began relaying orders back to the underwater team, while some of the earth ponies muttered angrily at the reminder of the incident that had cost them a substantial payday, having found a sunken treasure, only to lose it and fail in their attempts to reclaim it before Daring Doo swung in to stop them.
Caballaeron watched his Hench ponies work as the sunny morning dissolved into a cloudly afternoon, as minutes turned to hours and time become more limited Caballaeron was getting antsie at the slowness of his goons.
“Come on pick up the pace ponies,” He called out, “We’re pressing out luck here, Daring Doo could be back any day and we still have to load the wagons and ventrue into the Wildnress, and then we have to remove the rigging casue these thiings are expencive and I am not just leaving them here for Daring Doo to confiscate!”
The Hench Ponies failed to pick up the pace as they had already finsihed set up and where slowly doing their best to pull in their catch without tearring it to pieces.
Once the water began breaking apart Caballaeron apprached the waters edge to get a good view of the artifact.
It was made of metal, rusted by sea water, and very oddly shaped, with circlular part and a long cone like nose, two large curved pieces where stuck to the top almost looking like the prongs on a grabbling hook, from what hecould see of the bottom it had once had two more pieaces but had lost them, perhapse from time or just from them moving it.
“What is it Doc?” one of the Hench ponies asked curiously.
“A Pay day,” he decided. “Do a finnal check on the Wagons, makse sure their all properly connected we dont want to go dragging it across the dirt.
As Caballaeron made sure the preperations had all been properly set up one of the hench ponies noticed the front almost looked like it had a window of somekind, and for just a moment, he tought he saw somehting move from behind the muck and grim covering it.
But was swiftly waved off by Caballaeron back to work making sure everthing was set up.
Caballaeron and his team where long gone by the time Daring Doo arrived, the reminants of their dig visible, she threw her hat to the ground, having failed to get finacial backing for the very thing that had just happened.
“Knowing you someone probably followed you and had already nicked the thing,” A Noble mare had told her before shooing her off.
“Dammit,” Daring Doo muttered, “Well theres no way to track them down without knowing what that artifact even was, guess this’ll be the one that got away,” Daring Doo prepared herself for her next great journey across the jungle, decided the next artifact she found would be her’s even if she had to spend months alone in the jungle extracting it.
As Daring Doo traveled deeper into the Jungle, unaware of how lucky she truly was, Caballaeron had already found a buyer for his Artifact and shipped it off, he and his Hench Ponies already hot on Daring Doo’s Heels.
The buyer of his ill gotten gains was holding a special party in Manehattan, one for the richest of the rich, his new item on Display in the center of the room, the Party was still hours away and the Stallion throwing was watching the cleaning ponies hard at work trying to mak his new posession shine.
“Scrub faster,” Blueblood comanded as a few ponies scrubbed at the glass, another found an odd looking object suck in one of the two extended bits.
“Uh Sir,” A Mare said held up the odd metal object, it was long and as far as Blueblood could tell, pointless.
“I dont care toss it or keep it,” Blueblood waved the mare off, who quickly snuck out the back door, hoping the metal object could be apraised and give her a much needed revenue boost.
“Keep polishing,” Blueblood called out.
“Sir, there appears to be…and inside to this thing?” A Cleaner said when he managed to get just enough of the window cleaned to see what looked like a chair. “I think I can see a chair, it has something in it but I can’t quite-”
“Shut up and do your job,” Blueblood waved the cleaner off as he investiagated his center peace, through the rust and grime he found no way to open it, and ended up at it’s circular end that pushed inwardly slightly.
“Cut open this area,” He decided, “I’m going to go freshen up for the party, call me once it’s open,” Blueblood walked out of the room as a few Unicorns got to work following his orders, It had been a while since Blueblood had come to his Manehattan estate so it took a moment to find his room but he swiftly got to work tidying up his mane, making sure his coat was flawless and spening a great deal of time picking out a collar and tie for the event.
“It can’t have taken thoese simpletons this long to pop it open,” he realized angrily upon seeing the time, his party due to start before the turn of the next our.
Blueblood opened the door to his room and could hear loud noises, screaming and yelling. Without a doubt in his mind he pinned his help where helping themsleves to his spread for the party.
“I fire the lot of them,” He decided angrily as he began storming down the halls, the air smelled musty, as thought somehting had died but he ignored the foul stench, figuring his helpless staff of commoners had simply had to much fun defacing his party.
Blueblood marched to the doors, and swung them open.
The Room was empty, the screams had all died out, but his party hall was a mess, tables overturned, and a few of his lew lay scattered around the floor, probably drunk off his fine wine.
“At least they opened the damned thing,” he muttered as he went to take a peak inside his center piece, the stench of rot was unberable and he gagged as he backed away from it.
He heard a sound and looked over to see one of his help getting back up.
“What did you mindless fools do…to…my,” Bluebloods angrie died as the help raised it’s head and he watchedi n horror as it’s body began twisting and warping as it slowly got bigger, he tried to walk away from it when suddenly there was a sound like a fire cracker as Unicorn helpers horn deteonated like one.
Blueblood turned to run, but the other helpers where undergoing the same horrible transformations, their bodies puffing up as though they where balloons, Blueblood ran for the door, and just managed to get to it when something latched onto the back of his head.
Pain unlike anything before filled him as he tried to shake it off, he felt his insides boiling as more little creatures latched onto him and hindered his movements.
A splitting headache unlike any he had felt before began building up around his horn, and then just like his helper it overloaded with magic, and his horn, along with most of his head, went off like a fire cracker.
Blueblood's body convulsed as the creatures of the Flood began converging around the drop pod, all creatures within the area already assimilated or long gone.
But they could feel it all around them, sentient life, the Flood began moving out in droves to assimilate more sentient life. The Feral stage had begun.
Unaware of the danger so very close to them, Pinkie Pie and Maud where enjoying themselves in Manehattan, having met up on acident while Pinkie was at a Party, and Maud was dealing with the emotinal problems of having been part of a break up.
“We didn’t click,” Maud told Pinkie simply, “It’s the third time in as many months,”
“Maybe your just not made for the dating game?” Pinkie rationalized happily, “Oh me and Cheese are trying to a foal, you’d be a kick ass Auntie Pie!”
“Fun,” Maud replied in her dull tone, sounding ever chipper to Pinkie, “So is this the shop?”
“Oh yeah, best coffee in all of this part of Manehattan,” Pinkie waved her hoof around vagly as she walked into the shop, Maud following after her, turning when she heard a comotion down the street, but turning away when she saw some Guards heading in the same direction. Pinkie ordered a monster of a coffee with more additions than Maud could count, Maud got her’s black.
Maud was already drinking her cup of joe, Pinkie waiting for her’s at the counter, Maud looked out the window of the store, and noticed a lot of Ponies running down the street, in the opposite direction of the distrubance she had seen guards running towards.
“Hu,” Maud downed her cup and walked over to her sister, just in case there was some mosnter attacking she knew her sister would want to help.
“Looks like things are going down,” Pinkie noted, “Ooo, you think it’s an infestation of Parasprites, or maybe something worse like a tax pony!”
“You stay here and get your drink,” Maud told Pinkie in her ever flat tone, “I’ll check the noise,” Maud walked out the door and looke down the street, only to have her vision stolen when something flew past her and slid across the pavment, she turned to look at the object and saw the mangled head of a guards mare, her lower jaw a little ways away from the top of her head.
“Hmm,” Maud noted before taking a few steps back and locking the door to the coffee shop.
“So whats the stampede about?” Pinkie asked curiously.
“Do you have a walk in fridge?” Maud asked the mare behind the counter.
“Yes?” The mare replied.
“Good,” Maud walked up to Pinkie and gave her a solid bonk upisde the head, Pinkie crumbled like paper and Maud picked her up, “There’s a monster or monsters tearing ponies limb from limb outside, I suggest you gather any other staff and join us in your fridge,”
Maud made sure Pinkie was secure on her back, and then grabbed her sisters sugary nightmare before heading into the fridge with her, the mare called out to her few co workers, and was about to go out to the alley to get one on break when she heard him screaming, only for his screams to be cut off with a gut renching noise, she turned tail and ran into the fridge with the other coworkers and pulled the door shut.
Being that Monster attacks where not entrily unheard of, most all walk in fridges had a option to lock and bare the door from the inside, just in case.
The door was shut, locked and the employees began baring the door as another handed out a few emergency blankets to help fight the fridges chilly temper, Pinkie somewhat unhappily drinking her coffee.
“You didn’t have to bonk me,” Pinkie complained.
“You would have run outside to help,” Maud countered, and have been rendered imobile in horror if you saw what I had,”
“Why what’s out there?” Pinkie demadned, only to be shushed by her sister.
“I have trapped you, if you try to go out and help, you could get all these inocent ponies killed, so now you have to stay here, quietly, until help arives,”
Pinkie muttered in defeat and pulled out a little sticker from her mane with Twilight’s Cutie mark on it, she scratched and sniffed it before explaining.
“Twilight said to use this in emergency, now she knows that I’m in Manehaten and will come here, along with a small army, post haste to find out what the porblem is.
“She must think highly of you,” Maud noted at the notion of her sister being able to summon an Army.
“She gave one to all of us, and we’re only alloud to use it for emergency emergency, like a volcano or if ponies start turning into trees, the ponies could die kind of emergency,”
“Well ponies have died,”
“Wait is that what you-?” Maud covered her sisters mouth as she heard noises, the employees huddled far from the door, there was silence for a moment, and then somthing slammed agasint the door so hard it not only dented it, but shook the building.
Maud and Pinkie split apart, Pinkie rushing to do her best and keep any Employees from panicing and trying to run for it if the door fell, and Maud in turn slammed agaisnt the door, pushing the dent in the other direction.
The Creature slammed agaisnt the door a second time, and Maud slammed back. She would have kept up that song and dance but on it’s third slamm the door stated falling inwardly as a hindge broke, throwing caution to the wind Maud slammed her fists agaisnt it rapidly, slamming the door agaisnt the as of yet unseen creature and continued slamming agaisnt it until it was firmly part of the neighboring wall.
Maud rushed back to her sister when somehting latched onto her leg, without hesitation she turned and slammed her hoof into it, crushing the creature, several dozen small monsters had come bursing out form the door and where scuttling towards her and the now open fridge.
Maud began a vile game of wack a mole, crushing any creature that got to close to her sister. Just as she seemingly finished them off the front window of the coffee shop could be heard shattering, a horribly twisted looking pony ran into view, large pustule like gorths on it’s body, it’s limbs elongated and twisted with two many joins, its skull was visivle, with the flesh torn back leaving it’s skull visible, small trndripls where all around it’s body.
Maud was fully prepared to keep fighting, but before the creature could even fully push itself through the door way between the front area and the stores back portion it was coated in a purple aura and ripped away from sight.
Maud stood at the ready, and watched as Princess Twilight walked into the room, a swirling purple magical dome around her, as she walked up to Maud a few of the smaller creeps ran behind Twilight, but where shredded by her barrier.
Maud took care not to touch it and simply pointed to the fridge, “I hide her in there,” Maud noted dully.
“Good,” Twilight’s voice sounded heavy, her eyes full of the dull light of one who had just witnessed unimaginable horror, Pinkie skipped out merrily as Twilight placed her dome around the entire room, keeping any of the creaures from coming withing Pinkie’s line of sight.
Pinkie and Twilight exchanged a hug, Maud simply stood took this moment to turn on the sink and wash the gunk from her hooves as Twilight prepared to Teleport Pinkie and the employees to Canterlot. Maud walked up after her hooves where cleaned and with them was teleported away from the Madness that had over taken Manehattan.
It had been nearly a full day since the attack, and Manehattan had been declaired a dead zone, already the cretures where spreading far and wide, and it had been found out the hard way that with the eception of powerfull magic like an Alicorns or potentialy the Crystal Heart, anyone who tried to use Magic on the cratures would experiance a horride head ace, and most had recived such bad magical backlash their horns had imploded, taking the lives of Unicorn in the process.
Acting Captain of Twilight’s person Royal Guard, Tempest Shadow, was already working with Shining Armor, active captain of Cadances Royal Guard, with evacuating civilians to the Empire, while Shining Armor was busy orcastrating the construction of temporary housing for the evacuies.
Being one of the only ones to encounter the cratures and survive unscathed Maud had been forculy conscripted by the Princess, much to her mild irritation Maud stood in the Princesses War Room with Pinkie, they where in the middle of talking about how long Twilight’s Barrier over Canterlot would hold when a Mare Maud had never seen before barged into the room breathing heavily.
“Something wrong Moondancer?” Twilight asked with concern, “Has there been any sighitng,”
“No,” Moondancer replied, “We’ve found out where they came from,” Moondancer took a moment to catch her breath before reaching into her saddle back and pulling out an odd metalic object, a Mare from Manehattan was on the last train in and tried to have this aprasied, when asked where she had gotten it she said Blueblood tossed it away when he bought some ancient artifact,”
“I don’t like where this is going,” Twilight decided upon hearing Bluebloods name.
“A small unit of the secret opps snuck into Manehattan to check out Bluebloods Manor, there where a lot of thoese creatons inside, we lost a few good ponies but they found the artfact and managed to teleported it here, it seems to be some sort of ship, not sure where it came from or how it worked, but there were more of these inside,”
Moondancer held the mealic object up and shook it slightly, “Tests have shown this things shoots…somehting, we’re still running diagnostics but we think theire suppose to be used to stop whatever these things are, we found a lot of other things but this is the only things we’ve got working,”
“Alright, everyone get some rest, but keep the guards at the ready, remember no Magic, and no heros,” Twilight followed Moondancer out of the room and Maud followed Pinkie to a private room set up just for when she visteded.
“Any word from back home?” Maud asked, having been conctipted she hadn’t been able to go to the rock farm to make sure the rest of her family was safe, and Pinkie being who she was, had been bared from leaving the barrier.
“Twilight said she sent a patrol to help evacuate,” Pinkie sounded less than happy at the news, and Maud new why.
“Limestone won’t just abondon our home,” Maud turned on the spot, but was stopped by Pinkie.
“Maudy I only just managed to stop them from court martialing you when you spat in Twilights face,”
“She conscripted me becasue I said i was leaving to make sure my family was safe,” Maud replied dully, “I don’t care how nessescary she thinks I am, she spat in my face so I returned the favor,”
“Maud,” Pinkie whinned, “You won’t be able to leave Twilights barrier wihtout her permission, that’s how she stopped you from leaving,”
“I could punch through it,” Maud decided as Pinkie clung to her in an attempt to stop her, Maud was only stopped when Tempest Shadow could be seen waling their way.
“I’ve have the gurads sent to your familys home stead stay their to guard it,” She informed Maud simply, “Just wait a little long and I’ll make sure your first assinment tommorow is evacating your family,” Tempest continued walking and Maud had to accept that without the trains running it would take her well over a week to get back home.
Begrudigling accepting her gate Maud turned and dragged Pinkie back to their room.
“It’s just one night,” Pinkie cheered, “I’m sure Twilight will have things under control before you know it,”
“Yeah,” Maud agreed blandly, “Just one night,”
Author's Note
Hey everyone I'm doing a story writhing things with friends on Discord where we all write stories featuring the Flood from Halo.
After reading mine or while you wait for new chapters dont forget to check out the ones my friends wrote.
Downpour by The Force
Assimilation by Trashponi
